In the agricultural industry, cultivation of soil employs various styles of cultivators and harrows. In cooler climates the most common types are the disc cultivator (sometimes called a disc harrow), the chain harrow, the tine harrow or spike harrow and the spring tine harrow. Chain harrows are often used for lighter work such as leveling the tilth or covering seed, while disc cultivators are typically used for heavy work, such as following plowing to break up the sod. Tine harrows are used to refine seed-bed condition before planting, to remove small weeds in growing crops and to loosen the inter-row soils to allow for water to soak into the subsoil. All three types can be used in one pass to prepare the soil for seeding. It is also common to use any combination of two harrows for a variety of tilling processes. Where harrowing provides a very fine tilth, or the soil is very light so that it might easily be wind-blown, a roller is often added as the last of the set.
The compact disc cultivator is an implement used primarily to break up and smooth soil in preparation for planting and for the task of preparing soil for planting including tilling and leveling of fallow soil.
Turning the soil too deeply is not desirable in most situations because the soil dries out by exposing moist underlying soil. This is a significant problem when water is scarce or irrigation expensive. A cultivator is needed, therefore, that dependably tills on the large scale of a modern disc harrow, but without the problem of soil moisture loss.